


BNHA: the Thunder Rolls

by RHJunior



Category: DCU (Comics), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2020-05-31 03:58:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19418017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RHJunior/pseuds/RHJunior





	1. Chapter 1

Izuku hadn’t expected to be a hero that day. Of course he hadn’t expected much out of that day to begin with; maybe see a hero battle out in the city, add a few pages to his “Hero Notes for the Future;” maybe have some katsudon for dinner when he got home.. maybe get past Kacchan without getting beat up today… but definitely, not expecting to be a hero.

His expectations were definitely overturned. On the last few blocks to his home he found himself walking behind an oddly dressed elderly gentleman. He had long white hair down to his shoulders and an even longer white beard. He was wearing a suit at least a hundred years out of style, a bowler derby that probably had never been _in_ style, pinc nez glasses, an overcoat that draped down nearly to his ankles, and was walking with a staff-- not a cane, an actual staff that was tall as himself. He was moving at a sedate pace down the sidewalk, as if he had a thousand years to get where he was going and didn’t care if he took all of them.

Izuku dawdled back about a half a block.. he didn’t want to worry the old man; some people got jittery around teenagers, especially ones treading on their heels. It wasn’t like Izuku was in any hurry, anyway. But the old man seemed to be moving slower still, almost as if he was looking for something or waiting for someone to catch up with him. Perhaps he should give his mother a call to let her know he might be late--

He groaned silently to himself when the old man took the turnoff to go through the underpass. Was he going to have to follow the old man all the way home like this? He just needed to bite the bullet and hurry past the old gentleman-- be sure and apologize, of course-- then hurry on home…

He’d just entered the tunnel himself when something horrible burst up out of the sewer and attacked the old man. It was a gigantic mound of slime, with bulging eyeballs and a ragged mouth full of teeth. The old man fell down with a cry, and the slime engulfed him.

“Hah! You’re a bit old and wheezy, but you’ll do for a skinsuit till I can find something better,” the slime chortled, gurgling.

Izuku was already moving. He charged towards the villain and his struggling victim. “VILLAIN ATTACK! VILLAIN ATTACK! SOMEBODY HELP!” He flung his bookbag at the villain’s face; it struck the monster in one of his bulging eyes, bursting open and scattering papers everywhere.

“AAAgh! My eye--” The slime monster’s grip loosened; Izuku was close enough to hear the old man gasp for air before the slime engulfed him again.

 _I gotta get him to let go of the old man--His eyes! His eyes are his vulnerable point. What have I got that will hurt his eyes??_ Izuku’s hand dug around through his jacket pocket even as he clawed at the sludge gripping the old man with the other. He felt something soft and plastic under his fingertips--

A packet of sriracha sauce from his lunch.

 _Oh gods oh gods I’ve seen Kacchan do this stupid prank a dozen times I hope I get it right--_ He whipped the tiny condiment packet out, pointed it at the villain’s eyes, and squeezed it in his fist. The seam burst and a needle thin stream of Huy Fong’s Finest sprayed across the villain’s distended eyeballs.

“AAAAAAHHH, my EEEYYYYYEEESSS!!” The Slime-Man screamed fit to burst Izuku’s eardrums. Thrashing in agony he flung both his hostages away and retreated to a corner, sucking his eyes in and contracting himself into a roiling ball, trying to rinse his eyes out inside his own body.

Both Izuku and the elderly man hit the pavement hard; Izuku felt his own head crack hard against a concrete pillar. Stars exploded in his eyes. He shook off the starbursts and looked around woozily; the old man was lying nearby. He was spattered with filth and his hat and eyeglasses were gone, but Izuku could hear him moaning faintly. Thank heaven.

Unfortunately in the time Izuku had regained his senses, the villain had recuperated as well. He glared at Izuku with eyes so bloodshot they looked like boiled bacon. “I’m gonna KILL you kid,” he hissed like boiling pudding. “And I’m gonna do it SLOW.” He leaped across the tunnel--

“DETROIIIT… SMAAAASH!!”

There was a boom like thunder in a bottle and a torrent of wind ripped through the underpass. It caught the slime villain in mid-leap and ripped him apart, spattering him the length of the tunnel. Unfortunately it also caught Izuku and the old man. They tumbled several yards, Izuku doing his best to catch and shield the old man til he finally caught yet another glancing blow on his head, and all went dark..

He woke up who knew how many minutes later, lying out in the sun and staring up at someone… blonde… and LARGE… His vision cleared--

“ALL MIGHT?” he squawked. He sat up and scooted back. It was… the Symbol of Peace himself, the greatest hero in Japan and probably the world.

Holy cow. He’d been rescued by ALL MIGHT. This was AWESOME!! “All Might, I can’t believe it, thank you so much, I’m your biggest fan, I have so many things I want to--”

All Might laughed and held up his hand. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, there, young man! Stop and take a breath!” Izuku obeyed, panting as he realized he’d nearly passed out again from forgetting to inhale. “I’m glad to see you’re okay. You were out for quite a bit...”

Izuku looked around. “Wait… where’s the villain??” _Or… whatever’s left of him,_ he thought squeamishly.

All Might let out a booming laugh. “No need to worry about him.” He held up a two liter soda bottle filled with brownish sludge. Izuku could see a pair of eyeballs floating inside.

“That’s all that’s left of him??”

All Might coughed. “Um, yes. It seems when he loses enough fluid mass the rest of him sort of, er, shrivels up like a slug...”

“Eugh.”

There was a quavering moan. Izuku looked around; the oddly-dressed old man was sitting nearby, arms wrapped around himself and looking distressed. “Oh, please help me, I, I don’t know what’s going on,” he moaned. “Please help an old man...”

Izuku got to his feet and went over to him. “Oh gosh. Are you okay, sir? Are you hurt?” The old man only mumbled something and clung to Izuku’s sleeves. “All Might, what should we do?”

All Might started to speak, but before he could say a word a beeping noise interrupted him. He pulled out his cellphone and looked at it. He flinched and grimaced briefly. “I… ahem. I’m afraid I have to get this villain to lockup as quickly as possible,” he said. “before he recuperates and starts getting fiesty, aheh.” He looked at the phone again and winced. “Maybe even faster,” he muttered. He tucked the bottle into the pocket of his cargo pants.

“But--!” Izuku gestured to the old man.

All Might rested his massive hands on Izuku’s shoulders. “Young man…”

“Midoriya. Izuku.”

“Young Midoriya, I’m going to have to entrust you with something, okay?” Mute, Izuku nodded. “Great. I need you to look after this elderly gentlemen, escort him home… or to the hospital, as needed. I’m afraid I can’t stick around to do it and leaping across the city with an elderly man in my arms-- well--” he hesitated. “Can you do that for me?”

Izuku nodded mutely again. “Great! And now I must bid you farewell, young man. I expect to see you become a great Hero in the future!” With that, he crouched down and leapt away.

“Wait, All Might! But I don’t--” by the time Izuku had spoken All Might was a dot in the distance. Izuku sighed and let his outstretched hand drop. It didn’t really matter. It wasn’t like All Might would tell him anything he hadn’t heard already anyway.

The old man whimpered again. Izuku realized his glasses and hat and cane were missing. He led the old man to a nearby curb and helped him sit down. “Wait here sir, please,” he said. Izuku ran back down the tunnel. A quick search and he’d found the man’s belongings; he found his own backpack with little trouble as well and took a few minutes scooping his tattered schoolwork back into it. He sighed as he tossed the bedraggled Hero notebook in on top and closed it. Wasted dreams, that.

When he returned to the old man and handed over the hat and cane and spectacles, he seemed a lot calmer. The old man scanned the skies as he put on his hat and pinc-nez, squinting. “He gone?” he said in a surprisingly calm and level voice.

Izuku blinked. “Uh, All Might? Yes, he’s probably halfway across the city by now.”

The old man grunted. “Good. For a minute there I thought he was gonna poach you out from under me.” He sounded almost amused.

What? “Uhh, sir… maybe we should take a little walk to the Emergency room and let the doctors check us over,” he said kindly. “We both took a pretty hard tumble. They might want to check for a concussion...”

“Kind of you to think of that,” the old man said. “Pity Man-Mountain there didn’t think about that.” He squinted at the sky again, this time in mild disapproval. “Don’t be too hard on him lad; he had his reasons for running off. Anyway, no need for the hospital. Here...” he dug in his longcoat pockets and pulled out something that looked like a pen with a purple light at the tip. He held it up to Izuku’s face. “Now hold still.”

“What--” The old man clicked the pen. A wide beam of purple light scanned up and down Izuku’s head. The headache he’d been feeling disappeared. The old man stepped back and clicked the pen again, letting the beam play over Izuku’s body. Dozens of aches, bruises, and scrapes vanished. Not only that, but the slime from the villain’s attack evaporated as well, leaving Izuku’s clothes spotless.

“That’s amazing!” Izuku stammered. “How…? What…?”

“Miniaturized version of the Purple Ray from the Amazons on Themyscira,” the old man said as he scanned it over himself. “Heals, cures, disinfects and sanitizes. Let’s hear it for micro-technology. The original version would have filled an eighteen-wheeler.” He stuck the miracle device back in his pocket. “Now come along, Izuku,” he said. “We’ve got a subway to catch.”

“Subway. Wait. What? How-- I didn’t tell you my name,” Izuku said.

The old man paused. “What? Oh, I’m sorry. I keep forgetting all those formalities and honorifics. I’m a bit new to Japan. Well, THIS Japan…. No, I was pretty new to the other one too..” he muttered absently. “Nevermind. Is Izuku too informal? Midoriya then. Come along--”

“But sir-- your name?”

The old man looked back in surprise, then smiled. “Oh of course. Call me Batson. Billy Batson. Or William if you prefer.” His eyes twinkled like a mischievous child’s and years seemed to fall from his face. “Anyway, come along, Young Midoriya. Like I said… Subway to catch.” He hefted his walking staff and started off back down the tunnel they’d just escaped.

Too confused to disobey, Izuku trotted after him. “but Sir… Batson-sama… there isn’t… any… subway.. down… here?” There in the middle of the tunnel wall, the wall he would have sworn had nothing more than dirt and graffiti on it a minute ago, was a steel door with the word “Subway” painted on it in English and Kanji. Mister Batson opened the door and gave Izuku a smile before stepping through. Feeling dizzier than he had when his head had hit the concrete, Izuku followed.

There was a short flight of stairs that ended in a small subway platform. The ticket window was closed and the illuminated signs were scrolling… well… nothing. Just gibberish and random symbols. A subway train was pulling up at that precise moment; it came to a halt just as the mysterious Mr. Batson’s toes lined up with the edge of the platform.

The doors whooshed open. “Come along Midoriya-- no, don’t worry about the ticket, it’s covered, come along--” Izuku stumbled after him, the doors whooshing shut on his heels. He looked around; the car they were in was empty save for themselves. _And that’s the most uncanny thing so far_ , he thought in amusement. _An empty train car in Japan on a workday afternoon…_

Mr. Batson sat down, then tapped the seat across from him with his staff. “Take a seat lad,” he said. “It’s a fairly short ride but I wouldn’t want to spend it standing.” Izuku sat. Just as his butt hit the chair, the train began moving. The lights and the announcement signs flickered oddly, and the windows began to frost over.

Izuku felt his heart rate jump. “What is all this? What is this about?” he demanded.

Mr. Batson smiled through his snowy beard. “Well, my boy, it’s quite simple,” he said. “You’ve been chosen.”

“C-Chosen? By who?”

Mr. Batson patted his beard over his chest. “Well-- by me.” He sat back a bit. “I believe a few explanations are in order.”

“No kidding,” Izuku muttered, glancing at the frosted over windows. Some decidedly strange lights and silhouettes were flashing by behind the frost.

“I may not look it, young man, but I was once a Hero myself… what you fellows today call a “Pro-Hero,” actually. One of Earth’s great champions. Got my start at about your age, too.”

“Which one?” Izuku asked.

Mr. Batson sighed and rolled his eyes. “You wouldn’t have heard of me. It was a LONG time ago… plus, it… wasn’t around here.”

Izuku squinted suspiciously. “Who?”

Mr. Batson held up a placating hand. “They used to call me Captain Marvel.” He snorted. “Till some corporate sharks stole the name out from under me and gave it to their public relations figurehead-- a plank-faced woman with a chip on her shoulder and a pole up her keester who thought everyone should kiss her foot because she was ‘the first great Woman Hero.’” He snorted again. “Wonder Woman, Black Canary, the Wasp and the She-Hulk sure got a horse laugh out of that.”

“I’ve not heard of any of those heroes,” Izuku said.

“Not surprising. When I say my career was ‘long ago and far away’ I’m not exaggerating. Between time travel, alternate dimensions, and various cosmic hiccups, I first got in the game, oh...” he counted on his fingers for a moment. “About three, four hundred years ago.”

Izuku gawped. He should have cried “bull,” but there was just something about the man that made it impossible not to believe him. “But the first child with a Quirk was born a hundred years ago--”

Mr. Batson held up a finger. “Correction: the first one _they know about_ was born a hundred years ago.” He lowered his hand. “More aptly, the first one they know about _on this Earth._ ”

“This… Earth?”

“You going to repeat everything I say back to me?” Mr. Batson chuckled. “Yes. In case you missed what I said about ‘alternate universes’ and didn’t catch the hint. I’m from… a few universes over, that-a-way. Different Universe, different Earth-- same in many regards, but different in some _fascinating_ ones as well.

“Anyway, as I was saying… where was I? Oh yes, three or four hundred years. Not a bad run, I’d think. But it was getting along in years and I was long overdue to find my successor, as my predecessor had passed it down to me.”

Izuku wasn’t a dumb boy. He silently pointed to himself. Mr. Batson clapped his wrinkled hands. “Bravo! You picked up the clue ball,” he chuckled.

“But why me?”

Mr. Batson laughed. “Goodness, your innocence is just so refreshing,” he said. “Izuku… may I call you Izuku now? Izuku, you, an unquirked boy, have shown a barmy old man more compassion, patience, and courage… not to mention competence under fire... than I’ve seen out of the last ten Pro Heroes I’ve seen this week _combined.”_

“Even All Might?”

Mr. Batson’s smile was suddenly a little sad. “We’ll give him a pass,” he said. “He’s got troubles… terrible troubles that you don’t know about… that kept him from sticking around. Try not to hold it against him.” He shifted in his seat. “But all said and done, Izuku, I am fully confident that you are more than worthy to wield the power I’m passing down to you.” The train squealed to a halt; Mr. Batson was on his feet and standing at the door before it had even halted. The door whooshed open.

“The power of SHAZAM.”

Izuku stepped out of the subway car. They were standing on a rocky plateau-- no, they weren’t. Izuku looked up, down, left, right-- they were standing on a titanic boulder, a flying mountain! It floated in the midst of a starry void that stretched out overhead… and underneath… Izuku skipped hastily away from the edge and towards the safer center. “Oh, sorry,” Mr. Batson mumbled. “I’ve forgotten how unsettling that is the first time. Anyway, welcome to--” he swept his arms out in a grand gesture.

“THE ROCK OF ETERNITY.”

“The rock of eternity,” Izuku whispered reverently.

Mr. Batson looked slightly embarrassed and dropped his arms. “Well, er, one bit of it anyway,” he said. “Sort of inherited it from my predecessor...he chipped it off the old block and, well, here it is.”

“What happened to him?” Izuku asked.

“Oh, he’s off somewhere… contemplating the omniverse, or something,” Batson said waving his hand. “Come on.” He led Izuku along a path that headed towards the center of the rocky terrain. On either side were several odd statues, grotesqueries. “The Deadly Sins, or the Enemies of Mankind,” Mr. Batson said. “Gluttony, Sloth, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Pride, Deceit, Injustice…” he named some of them as they passed.

“I thought there were only seven Deadly Sins,” Izuku said.

“Well, most people only NAME seven,” Batson said. “Wanted to keep the number symbolic, or the like. My predecessor and I quibbled over whether ‘lust’ or ‘injustice’ should be number seven, and then we quibbled about ‘Deceit’, and whether Gluttony and Greed were really the same thing… so we just put them all up.” He rolled his eyes. “Good thing we stopped. If we’d kept at it we would have covered the rock with the world’s ugliest lawn gnome collection. Either way, these are the Enemies of Man... and YOUR enemies. Beware them, they will do you nothing but harm.”

The path ended at a circular tableau. Six pillars stood around the edge. On each one a name was carved. Mr. Batson stopped in the center and pointed to the first pillar. The name engraved there lit up, one letter at a time.

“The Wisdom of Solomon!”

The second one lit up with a flash. “The strength of Hercules!”

The third flashed. “The stamina of Atlas!”

Flash. “The power of Zeus!”

Flash. “The invulnerability of Achilles!”

Flash. “The swiftness of Mercury!”

A wind began circling, tousling their hair. Batson stood there, his white hair and beard flying; he no longer looked like a mild mannered little old man-- he looked like a wizard, or a shaman, or a wise man-- an Ancient, in every sense of the word. He pointed his staff at Izuku.

“By this word, do I grant you the power I inherited! To you I pass down what was passed down to me--

“THE POWER OF SHAZAM!”

Lightning leapt from the pillars, down to the old man, limning him in crackling light. It crawled down the length of the staff and leapt, pencil-thin, to strike Izuku in the forehead. For the briefest of seconds Izuku felt electricity crackling through him, from the crown of his head down and out through his toes and fingertips… then it stopped. Batson lowered his staff; he seemed to sag a bit, suddenly looking a touch older and far more tired. But he looked up and gave Izuku a confident smile.

“Now,” he said. “Say the name.” He pointed to the pillars. The first letter of each still glowed.

Izuku wet his lips and took a deep breath.

“SHAZAM!”

A bolt fell from the starry void above and struck Izuku. He felt an explosion of power--

He staggered, and blinked. “Quite the rush, eh?” Batson chuckled. Izuku looked over and down at him--

Down-- at him--

He was looking down at the top of the old man’s head.

“Here,” Batson said. He gestured at a nearby outcropping of rock. Water flowed down its side, rippled, smoothed, became a silvery mirror. Izuku looked into it and saw his reflection.

Izuku stammered in shock and looked himself over. He was TALL. He had to be at least two meters tall now, broad shouldered, and _rippling_ with muscle. He was dressed in a deep red bodysuit, with golden metallic boots, bracers, and belt. A glowing, gold-trimmed lightning bolt trailed down his broad chest. There was a cape adorning his shoulders, white with gold trim-- a quick examination revealed that it was actually sort of a cowl, with a hood. _That would come in handy in bad weather_ , he couldn’t help thinking while the rest of his brain gibbered in fanboy hysterics. He still had his mop of curly green hair, but now it reached down to the nape of his neck. And his face… he could still see himself in that boyish face. It certainly still had the freckles.

“Not bad, huh?”

Izuku couldn’t help flexing at the mirror a bit. “In-- Incredible,” he agreed.

“Okay, now say it again.”

“Incredible?”

Batson snerked. “That joke never quits being funny. No, kid-- the other--”

“What? Oh, Shazam?”

Another crack of thunder and bolt of lightning, and ordinary Izuku was standing there again. He patted himself over, not sure if he was relieved or disappointed. “Oh, oh, I get it, I change whenever I say--”

A wrinkled hand clapped over his mouth. “Ah, you might want to learn to be careful about saying ‘the Magic Word’ all the time,” Batson said. Izuku nodded meekly. Batson let his hand drop. “When you’re the Big Red Cheese, you’re just about indestructible. But when you switch back, you’re just another squishy mortal, got it?” He glanced up. “Oh, and be careful about saying that INDOORS. The Lightning isn’t picky about what it passes through on its way to you.” He shook his head. “I ruined more ceilings in our old house that way… heh. It’s a good thing you don’t have to necessarily do the secret identity thing here. Old Supes might have gotten away with changing in telephone booths, but people tend to notice when lightning starts striking in a residential neighborhood on a regular basis...” He gazed off into nowhere in nostalgia.

“I’ll remember that,” Izuku said. He flexed his skinny arms experimentally, and flicked his fingers. Sparks of electricity ran up and down his digits.

“What’s that?” Batson peered at his fingers. Izuku flicked them again. “Well well,” Batson said in amusement. “It looks like you can access a smidgen of your powers even in your mortal form. That’ll come in handy in a pinch.” He walked over to the center of the amphitheater again. A throne of stone grew up behind him and he sat down. “Dang it, forgot the cushions--” a few plush pillows appeared and he settled in with a sigh. “Now, say the magic word again, Izuku my boy.”

Izuku complied; Another lightning bolt and roll of thunder and he stood before him, empowered again. “Gonna have to pick out a new name,” Batson muttered. “Dratted lawyers. Just-- Just call yourself ‘The Marvel’ for now.”

Izuku nodded, grinning. “That works.”

“Okay. I’m gonna be sending you home now-- but before you go I’m going to do something MY predecessor didn’t do and darn well OUGHT to have done before he sent me on my way.” He gave Izuku a wry smile, his eyes twinkling again. “I’m gonna tell you _what your powers are and how they work.”_

* * *

It was twilight when Izuku finally came home. Inko was frantic; where had her baby boy gotten to?? She nearly had a heart attack from relief when he crashed through the front door. “Mom! Mom, I--”

“Izuku, where have you BEEN?” she cried, rushing to him. “Not a word, not a CALL--”

Izuku did something that made her blink. He laughed. “I was kind of out of phone range,” he said. “REALLY out of phone range. I’m sorry, but it’s okay, really-- I’ve got something to show you--”

“Izuku, what were you doing that took you out of cell phone range? Where WERE you? What HAPPENED?”

Izuku laughed again. She’d never seen him so cheerful, not in ages! “If you’ll come outside, I’ll SHOW you,” he said in exasperation. “Come on--” he tugged her hand, then turned and ran out the door. Baffled, she followed.

By the time she got her shoes on and out on the patio, he was already down in the parking lot. He stood in the middle of the asphalt, arms spread wide and looking up at her with a wide beaming smile on his face. “Hey Mom, remember all those times when I was real little and I’d go ‘Mommy, Mommy, watch me!’?” He laughed.

“Well, Mom-- WATCH THIS!”

“ _ **SHAZAM!!”**_

And thunder and lightning split the sky--

* * *

It had been an unusual admissions exam day. Even for U.A.

The teachers and staff sat in the observation lounge, watching on dozens of giant screens as the hopeful applicants tore their way through scores of low-grade battle-bots, all of them hoping to make a high enough score or a big enough impression to win one of the coveted Hero Course class seats. This was typical.

What was not so typical was what was going down in exam arena A. One student in particular was giving the onlooking teachers and judges fits. Particularly, they were going nuts placing wagers on what the boy’s Quirk actually was.

“It’s gotta be some form of electrical Quirk!” someone argued.

“But that doesn’t account for the flight--”

“And that TRANSFORMATION,” someone added.

Nedzu, the school’s rat-dog-bear-whatever principal, listened to them argue. He pulled up the boy’s file and looked it over. Izuku Midoriya, age fourteen, Green hair, green eyes, freckles, fairly high grades, etcetera… but under Quirk the boy had written, then crossed out several options, only to finally write a single nonsense word in English.

Shizzle?-- No, SHAZAM.

What an odd word. Nedzu was rather fond of Scrabble, played it in several languages even-- but even his encyclopedic knowledge of words and phrases was turning up a blank.

Young Midoriya’s behavior had been odd right from the outset of the Practical. The moment the doors opened, he had run backwards, away from them. It was clear though a moment later that what he was doing was _getting a safe distance from the other students._ The moment he was a few meters away from the mob, he stopped, shouted something, and-- for lack of a better description-- was immolated in a bolt of lightning. Lightning from out of the clear blue sky.

Then it got _really_ interesting. The skinny green-haired boy in a cheap track suit had been replaced by a red-and-gold suited, green-haired man some six feet tall and sporting the build of an Olympian. He had jumped and flown… FLOWN… over the packed crowd of students and dived into the arena, smashing robots left and right with his fists, his feet and yes, more lightning, this time blasted from his fingertips.

From there he’d been all over the testing zone, flying up and diving down to smash groups of one, two and three pointers. Nedzu was fairly certain he’d seen bursts of super-speed from the boy as well as he raced on foot here and there. He was raking in the points hand over fist... he was also earning quite a few of the secret “rescue” points, coming to other applicants’ aid, preventing robotic ambushes, tanking lasers and missile rounds for other students and the like.

He wasn’t getting much gratitude though. Partly because of the highly competitive nature of the Practical-- a factor that Nedzu always found to be a source of disappointment. But also because young Midoriya seemed to be…

Well…

A little bit of a klutz. Nedzu turned on the audio and listened in.

* * *

“Hey watch it!”

“Oops--”

“That was MY kill!”

“--Sorry--”

“You did that on purpose!”

“No, I didn’t mean to--”

“Owwww!”

“Oh gosh, sorry, sorry sorry sorry--” Izuku pulled a bandage roll out of the first aid kit under his cape (thank GOODNESS his mother insisted on him carrying it!) and hastily wrapped the arm of the student he’d clipped with a stop sign. He flew off before the guy could yell any more.

This was not going good. He’d trained, and trained, but he still wasn’t USED to being in this over-large, overpowered body. He was mopping the floor with the robots, sure, but a lot of people were getting dinged with collateral damage in the process. Punching out a three pointer meant flaming debris went EVERYwhere, and lightning was danged hard to control… Several times he’d had to rescue people from his own blunders. Thank Mercury for Super Speed at least.

Then the earth shook and the buildings trembled and everything REALLY went to crap.

Clouds of dust boiled down the streets. Applicants ran, coughing and choking and dodging rubble. Izuku snagged a basketball sized chunk of concrete before it could crush one purple-haired kid’s head, blocked a shower of broken glass with his back before it could fall on a couple of students, then flew up out of the dust cloud to get his bearings.

Less than a block over an enormous robot, big as the buildings on either side, had risen up out of the street intersection like a vengeful subterranean monster. It was now rumbling down the street, smashing the buildings on either side with its fists. Someone with a wind Quirk had managed to blow the dustclouds back. Izuku could see hero course applicants fleeing in a mob--

He could also see one girl in the street, her legs pinned under a slab of concrete.

Ochaco strained, trying to reach around so she could use her Quirk on the rubble pinning her. Every time she shifted her broken leg sent agony ripping through her. She was trapped--

Golden boots hit the street next to her. “Are you okay? Hold on, I’ll get you out of there!” She looked up. It was the flying… kind of clumsy… applicant who’d been all over the place during the exam.

“My leg..” she whimpered.

“Let me get this--” he bent down and grabbed the slab pinning her.

“Lift with your legs, not your back!” she yelped, dozens of hours around her parent’s construction business coming to the fore.

“Right-- got it--” he shifted his stance and the enormous slab of concrete and mortar rose. She watched in astonishment as he raised it up…

The Zero Pointer slammed its fist into the street. The ground shook, and the green-haired boy staggered. Ochaco screamed and shielded her head, convinced that he was going to drop it.

He didn’t drop it. He staggered a step, shifted his grip and glared in rage at the Zero Pointer. “STOP THAT, YOU STUPID--!” He gripped the concrete slab, spun in a circle and THREW it at the giant robot. It streaked toward the robot like a discus, striking it in the torso and punching straight through it. The mechanical leviathan stood there for a moment, as if it were astonished at what happened to it. Then slowly it toppled over to one side, flattening the faux-building next to it. A moment later explosions ripped through it as its internal mechanisms decided that yes, this DID qualify as a critical engineering failure and detonated.

Ochaco gaped in awe at the destruction. She looked up at her rescuer. He was standing there, poking his index fingers together and looking for all the world like a little boy who’d just pitched a baseball through someone’s window. He looked at her, chagrined. “Weeeee…. _Weren’t_ supposed to destroy those things, were we...” he said.

Ochaco smothered a snicker. “No,” she said. “But--”

The boy-- he was so clearly a boy, for all he was grown big as a man-- cringed. “Oh, man, I hope they don’t BILL me for it!” he whimpered.

That was too much. Ochaco sputtered and let loose a belly laugh. “Haahhaha-- owww.” She clutched her calf. Yup, her ankle was busted for sure.

“Oh here, let me help..” he knelt down and fiddled with her work boot. “I think we’re supposed to get this shoe off...” he struggled with the laces for a moment. “Ah, freaking--” He stopped and glared at his hands. “Stupid giant MAN HANDS!” He stood up and backed up a few steps.

“SHAZAM!”

There was a blinding flash of light and a crash of thunder, and the heroic red and gold figure was replaced by a teenage boy in a track suit. He dropped back to his knees and finished unlacing the boot, pulling it off carefully. “There… we go...”

“You..the boy at the front gate! You and him.. you’re…?” Ochaco said. She winced as her foot slid free of the shoe.

“Yeah, that’s me,” he said. “I shapeshift.”

“But you… and lightning. And super strength-- and you flew!” Ochaco babbled.

He nodded and rubbed the back of his head, embarassed. “Yeah. I have more than one power. But it’s still all one… thing...” he waved a hand. “It’s complicated.”

“I bet.” Ochako murmured.

“Any injuries, dears? Oh, here we are--” An elderly woman in a labcoat came weaving through the crowd. “ah, no need for first aid, young man, I’ve got it covered...” Recovery Girl leaned over and gave Ochako a kiss on the brow. Almost instantly the shattered ankle reformed, healthy as new. “You’ll need to rest up a bit, dear,” Recovery Girl said, handing Ochako a baggie of gummi vitamins. “My healing draws on YOUR energy, not mine.”

“Yes ma’am,” Ochako said obediently. She looked up at Izuku. “Oh, I’m sorry-- my name is Uraraka Ochako. Thank you for saving me!”

Izuku blushed. “J-just glad to help,” he said. “Oh, and I’m Izuku. Midoriya Izuku.”

“Really?” Recovery Girl said. “Midoriya Izuku?” At Izuku’s nod she said, “Well you’d best head right on over to the principal’s office. Nedzu-sama has a _few things_ to discuss with you.” With that ominous pronouncement she tottered off.

Izuku gulped. It wasn’t just his hair that was green. “Oh boy,” he said.

* * *

“Well, young Midoriya,” Principal Nedzu said, sipping his tea. “You’ve created quite a stir.”

“Yessir?” Midoriya mumbled. He glanced around the room. The entire teaching staff of U.A., some of the most famous Pro Heros in Japan, were gathered in the room. Midnight. Vlad. Ectoplasm. Present Mic. Eraserhead. Cementoss. Even ALL MIGHT. All silent. All staring at him. If he hadn’t been sweating bullets, Izuku would have been going into a fanboy freakout hard enough to explode.

“I can see you’re quite anxious about this little meeting,” Nedzu said, his expression and voice cheerful as ever. “So let’s cut some of the tension shall we? First off, we’ll bend the rules a bit and let you know right now: you scored 75 Villain points in the Practical. More than enough to put you in first place and secure a seat in the Hero Course.”

Izuku’s face lit up like the morning sun. “I did it?” he said. “I’m IN?”

Nedzu held up a paw and motioned for him to calm down. Izuku clamped down on his exuberance and held his breath. “We should also add that there was another, hidden metric,” he said. “Rescue points. You earned another _hundred and twenty points_ in this manner, coming to the aid of other applicants in distress.” He waved to the monitors on the wall. As Izuku watched they lit up, each one displaying a different moment when Izuku had literally saved someone’s neck… including the moment he’d rescued the Gravity girl. “These, I must tell you, are the ones we look for most keenly. They demonstrate a true heroic mindset, one value we deeply treasure here in U.A.”

Izuku let out a puff of air and seemed to deflate a little. “Sir.. you probably need to delete a lot of those rescue points,” he said soberly. Nedzu cocked his head quizzically. “A lot of those rescues…” Izuku hung his head and looked up at the Principal. “A lot of them were me having to rescue someone from one of my bungles.”

“We noticed,” Cementoss said. “And it doesn’t change my opinion any.” Now it was Izuku’s turn to look puzzled. “Kid, you would be AMAZED at how often Pro Heroes have “bungles” like that,” Cementoss went on. He gave All Might a meaningful look. The Pillar of Peace coughed and looked off at nothing. “There are Pros out there who will tear up the scenery, cause all sorts of collateral damage and injuries and not give a darn.”

Someone coughed. It sounded a lot like “ENDEAVOR”.

“No lie,” Cementoss said, unashamed. “That jackass would burn down half a neighborhood chasing a gas-station robber and not even stick around to count the number of people he left homeless or in the hospital. Prick.” He looked Izuku in the eye. “It says a lot to me that you tried to clean up after yourself.”

“Hm. Perhaps we should add a new category of secret points,” Principal Nedzu said. “Salvage points? Cleaning-Up-After-Oneself points? Ah, but that’s for later. Rest assured, with more training you will have fewer awkward moments like this.” He took a moment to refill his cup. “But now to address the point that I’m sure is dwelling on young Midoriya’s mind the most:

“The issue of the nature of his powers.”

Izuku stammered. “Sir… I...”

Nedzu held up a paw. “Midoriya Izuku, For your own safety and well being you need to be informed that the policy of both the U.A., the Japanese government, and of the Law concerning the nature and origins of your powers is thus:

“We don’t give a darn.”

“Whu?” Izuku blurted. He blinked.

It was then that All Might spoke. “Young Midoriya, I am sure you are aware of the common wisdom about powers and the nature of Quirks,” he said, steepling his fingers in front of him. “Everyone, at least eighty percent, that is, gets a single Quirk which grants them a particular power. These powers are passed down to those people’s offspring, combining genetically into new, different, but related Quirks. Correct?”

“Er, yes?”

“That is the common wisdom, yes.” All Might sat back. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

“Firstly,” Vlad King said. “Nobody has really figured out, in a solid way, how Powers function, how they’re passed on, why they change, or even how they work. There are multiple examples around the world of people who seem to break the ‘one Quirk, one Power’ rule.”

“Todoroki Shoto, Endeavor’s son, for example” Ectoplasm said. “He controls both fire AND ice. There are many Quirk Experts who would swear that he has two Quirks, not one.”

“Then there’s the Tenya family,” Vlad added. “They have _engines in their arms and legs_ that run on _orange juice_. One look at them makes the average biochemist want to crawl off in a corner and cry themselves to sleep.” Several of the teachers chuckled.

“And the genetics issue is even worse,” Midnight said. “The way Quirks are passed on violates everything learned about genetics since Gregor Mendel. You can identify your average geneticist these days by the chronic hangover.”

“And it’s not bandied about but there are countless cases of people who gain powers other than by a Quirk,” Nedzu said, resuming control of the conversation. “Genetic experiments. Cybernetic implants. Use of body-altering chemicals...” he dunked a biscuit thoughtfully. “There was that one fellow who claimed to get his powers from a green rock that fell from space...” He crunched the cookie and washed it down with a splash of tea.

“The point is, young man, the Quirk classification is just that.. a system. Designed less by scientists and more by harried bureaucrats who desperately wanted to fit everything in this mad new world into tidy little boxes. And guess what, the boxes _leaked._ And they are VERY busy ignoring that.

“The powers that be don’t WANT to investigate every odd little anomalous power that doesn’t fit in the system. In fact, the reaction of the last group of politicians who we asked about investigating anomalous quirks was, verbatim, “Oh Jesus, Buddha, Hare Krishna and Bob Ross, please NO.”” Someone let out a snort. “So long as we stick a label on you and give them someplace to put your file, they won’t care. So you can rest easy; noone’s going to cart you off to some secret government lab or anything of the like.”

Izuku felt himself sag in relief as the bear-dog-mouse’s words registered. Still… “Do you… that is, U.A. Do you want to know where my powers come from?”

All Might coughed. “You’re not the only one with secrets, Young Midoriya,” he said. “Unless it’s something you need to let us know for your own safety or the safety of the school, your secrets are your own.”

Midnight crossed one shapely leg over the other and rested her laced fingers on her knee. “Is there anything like that we should know?” she asked. Izuku shook his head.

All Might looked almost apologetic for asking. “Is it actually multiple Quirks--”

“Um no,” Izuku said. To his puzzlement All Might looked relieved? “Actually, it’s a sort of singular power set, handed down as a legacy...” All Might, and several others, started at that. Several of them shot glances at All Might before catching themselves. Strange.

Present Mic turned to Eraserhead, who looked extremely disgusted. “Come on, pay up,” Present Mic cackled, holding out a hand. Eraserhead scowled and started counting 1000 yen notes into the sonic Pro Hero’s palm.

All Might cut Izuku off. “In that case I withdraw the question,” he said. “We’ll just say that yours isn’t the first such case we’ve heard of… and we know the dangers of having too many people knowing the details.” Well. That wasn’t ominous.

“Moving on to less tense subjects,” Nedzu said. “As it’s rather important to how your education shall go-- What exactly ARE your powers?”

Izuku took a deep breath. “Well...”

* * *

It was the first day of class. The students of 1-A were fitted out in their gym gear and lined up outside. Their homeroom teacher, Eraserhead, had just informed them they were to take a Quirk Apprehension Test. Some of the students looked nervous. Katsuki looked surly. Izuku looked cheerful and calm. Eraserhead looked like someone had dumped him out of bed five minutes ago and then beaten him with a bedwarmer.

Aizawa looked over his students. “Let’s get started. Izuku, since you were the highest score in the Admissions test--”

Bakugao (metaphorically, for once) exploded. “What?? Deku?? The TOP SCORE??”

Aizawa looked at him as if he hated wasting the energy to do so. “Didn’t you read the scoresheet? How illogical of you.”

“BULLSHIT!” Bakugao yelled. “THIS Quirkless little NOTHING beat MY SCORE??” He stomped over to where Izuku stood, hands popping and sparking, and rammed a finger into Izuku’s chest hard enough to make him rock backwards. “All right, I’ve had it! What lousy cheat TRICK did you PULL to get in to U.A., you Quirkless BUTTRAG? TELL ME!!” He cupped one hand into a claw, letting his Quirk pop larger and louder explosions in his palm, threatening.

Izuku did something that should have made Katsuki turn tail and run: he _smiled._ “Sure, Kacchan, I’ll tell you!” He put his hands behind his back and leaned in.

“….shazam.”

…

…

…

A minute or so later, Katsuki was still standing there. He hadn’t been electrocuted-- Izuku had practiced till he knew the _exact_ safe distance-- but it had been close. His hair was smoking, and was looking rather more frizzed than usual. There was still nothing but spots before his eyes, he could hear nothing but a faint ringing noise, his muscles were still spasming and his undershorts were full of something unpleasant.

Aizawa looked him over and sighed. “Uraraka, please levitate him over to Recovery Girl’s office,” he said. “We’ll let you catch up when you get back.” The girl complied, and began towing Bakugao behind her like an epileptic balloon. “Midoriya?” He tossed one of the softballs to the red-and-gold suited Olympian. “Like I said, you go first.”

“Yessir.”

“And Midoriya? Please don’t Thunderbolt any more of your classmates?”

“Of course not sir.” Midoriya gave him an innocent smile, stepped up and threw the ball into orbit.


	2. Chapter 2

“OW! OWOwOwOwOWOW OWW! Where the hell did you get a GATLING GUN?? It’s WAY too big for you to OW OW OW OWOWOW!” Izuku yelled, leaning into the wave of gunfire like he was leaning into a hailstorm.

“Mini Vulcan cannon, actually. I took the five minute lead time to make the parts, and assembled it!” Yaoyarozu shouted back from behind cover. Indeed she was looking rather anemic and hollow cheeked, but she was hanging in there. “When you showed us all you were bullet proof I figured I’d better not waste time with anything less!”

“Worst tactical decision evaAAH OWCH!” Izuku lamented.

Their first lesson with All Might was going differently than Izuku expected. The world’s mightiest hero was obviously a learn-by-doing sort of teacher, and had devoted the entire period to “Battle Trials,” setting up random two vs. two battles between the students. One team was to hide and protect a paper mache’ “Atomic Bomb” somewhere in one of the testing grounds’ fake office buildings, the other was to try and either ‘defuse’ the bomb by touching it, or capture both villains before fifteen minutes had passed.

At first it had looked like one horribly imbalanced setup; several students complained that Izuku, in his Captain Marvel form, would practically cakewalk the exercise all by himself. (Several rather alarming field demonstrations the week before with robotic guns, bombs and missiles had proven that.) Others had argued back that in the battlefield you didn’t get to cry ‘foul’ if your opponent was vastly more powerful; you just had to suck it up and try anyway. The argument had left Izuku sheepish and flustered, his face red.

All Might had managed to come down in the middle. “Now, now,” he said, holding up his hands for quiet. “You both have good points; however, the test is not winner-take-all. We wish to evaluate how well you fight-- but also how well you win, or lose. Besides, young Midoriya won’t be participating in ALL the fights, just one!

“However, since he has demonstrated his Quirk to be… ah, rather higher tier, I'm giving the opposing team that goes up against him permission to go all out..."

In short, All Might had given whomever ended up on the opposing side carte blanche to use their maximum abilities-- at what would be regarded as lethal levels-- against Izuku.

The look in Kacchan’s eyes at this announcement had not made Izuku very happy.

As misfortune would have it, Izuku had ended up on a hero team with Ochako… opposing Yaoyarozu and Kacchan. It had begun about as Izuku could have predicted. The Villain team had fallen apart within moments of finding the bomb; or rather Kacchan had behaved in his predictable fashion, ignored anything his partner said, and (after a lot of swearing and yelling) had gone running alone through the building, fully intent on a showdown with ‘that Shitty Deku’ to ‘settle things once and for all.'

From there though things had gone wildly off-script. Izuku and Ochako had heard Kacchan blasting and swearing his way through the building. Izuku had persuaded Ochako to split up with him… Kacchan was looking for Izuku and was not going to be holding back. But Izuku could take it-- and while he was keeping Kacchan occupied, Ochako could find the bomb and (if they were lucky) tag it out.

They had split up. Kacchan had cornered Izuku in a hallway, and had charged him, fully intending to blast him to kingdom come with the contents of his bracers. Izuku had braced himself--

– and Ochako had dived out of a side room, hitting Kacchan in a tackle at the knees. Before the explosive boy could do more than shout in surprise, she’d used her Quirk on him, grabbed him by one leg and begun slamming him against the walls, ceiling and floor for all she was worth. Izuku had been left standing there slackjawed as the sweet, friendly girl had thrown the other boy around like a rat flail.

_Gravity, nothing,_ his Quirk obsessed subconscious rattled at him. _Her power must play merry hell with inertia too for her to do THAT…_ “Go on, I’ve got this!” she shouted.

“But-- his explosions--” Izuku stammered.

“My costume is blast and fireproof,” Ochako said. As if in punctuation, Bakugo managed to gather enough of his senses and began flailing about, throwing detonations in random directions. Ochako didn’t even flinch.

“Really?”

“Kevlar, Nomex and ballistic gel,” she said. “Trust me, I’m good! Now go get the bomb-- be careful, Yaoyorozu is probably ready for you! --And-- You-- stop-- that-- right-- NOW!” Ochako said, slamming Bakugo on the floor like a foul-mouthed mallet.

Izuku hesitated, decided his partner had things in hand here, and zipped off at super speed.

It was an excruciating five-minute search. It should have taken him mere seconds, but he had a few disadvantages. Izuku may have had the speed of Mercury, but thus far he had the cornering and turn ratio of a dump truck on ice. He’d left more than one Marvel-shaped indentation in the concrete walls at the end of halls and stairways.

When he’d finally found Yaoyorozu by accident when he caromed into a wall that wasn’t quite as it seemed. An entire panel had cracked like a graham cracker. “Clever!” he said, prying away the finger-thin plaster panel hiding the doorway. Yaoyorozu had hidden the door to the bomb room behind a false wall. He ripped the paneling away and stepped through the door, hands on hips. She was crouched behind a makeshift bunker made of piled rubble and furniture. “Ahah!” he crowed. “Your plans are thwarted now, villain--”

Then she’d shot him in the crotch.

Nigh indestructible or not, a hundred rounds of ammo to the nuts would be enough to get anyone’s attention. Izuku had staggered back out of the doorway and out of her line of fire, clutching himself and making a sound suspiciously like “Waaaugh.” “THAT WAS UNCALLED FOR!” he shouted once he was behind cover. 

“...Sorry--” Yaoyorozu said. She shrieked as Izuku tried to punch a new doorway through the wall. “But not sorry!” she finished, peppering the wall with still more bullets.

“You can’t keep this up forever!” he shouted, shielding his face. “Making the ammunition is costing you too many calories!”

“I don’t have to keep it up forever, just until the countdown ends!” She retorted.

And so now here he was, trying to wade forward into a hail of lead, as All Might counted down the last few seconds in his ear. “Five, four, three, two--”

“HIYAA!” out of nowhere Ochako popped through a window, a brick in her hand. With a desperate heave she tossed it the length of the room, punching a hole through the paper mache’ bomb just as All Might shouted “ONE.” 

The machine gun fell silent. 

“Team Villain are the WINNERS!”

******

“Well I have to say I’m VERY curious to hear explanations from both teams about their tactical choices,” All Might said in a censorious tone, one eyebrow raised. The four students were standing in front of him, looking rather bedraggled. Yaoyorozu looked like a famine survivor, with her cheeks hollowed and her hands shaking. She was rapidly chowing her way through an entire pot of miso soup; Izuku had charitably run to the cafeteria and back with his super-speed, fetching it and several other dishes from Lunch Rush’s kitchen so she could replenish the calories she’d burned. Bakugo was tangled in what looked like an entire spool of capture tape and looked both heavily battered and maybe a little wall-eyed. Izuku looked fairly well off-- his heroic form only had a few tiny dimpled bruises which were already fading, but he had a look on his face like a whipped puppy. Of all of them Ochako looked to have come out the best, but even she was fidgeting like a little girl getting ready to plead her case after getting caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“So, who would like to go first?” All Might said. There was silence. “...very well. Yaoyorozu? Did you really feel it necessary to--”

It said a lot about how famished Yaoyorozu was that she barely looked up from her soup. “We’re villains, and you said ‘go all out,” she said between spoonfuls. 

“But… armor piercing and explosive rounds??”

“Midoriya-san is tough enough to take massive explosions to the face without flinching. Anything less wouldn’t even have slowed him down. Pass the Tempura please?”

“I…. fair enough, I suppose,” All Might said. “But it was still… incautious. Not only did you run the risk of hitting someone far less bulletproof but you expended your, er, caloric resources rather dangerously, didn’t you?” Yaoyorozu winced, but nodded. “Next time, I should probably put more emphasis on tactics over brute force. Try to find a method that isn’t quite all-or-nothing next time.

“Now, Young Uraraka, could you explain why you forfeited the match by damaging the bomb…?”

Ochako took one step forward, almost military fashion, and stood straight. “I wasn’t forfeiting, sir. I know the rules of the match, but I hoped you’d take into account that in a real life Broken Arrow event, smashing or destroying the bomb is a valid tactical approach.”

“A… beg pardon?”

Izuku stepped forward. He was still in his herculean alternate form. “I think I can explain, sensei,” he said. “Broken Arrow’ is a military term for a lost or stolen nuclear weapon. And as a last resort they’ve found it’s better to blow up the bomb than let it detonate on its own.”

The rest of the class stared at him. “That’s NUTS, man!” Kirishima exclaimed. From the looks on several faces the rest of the class agreed.

“No, that’s just the thing,” Izuku said, slipping into lecture mode. “See, what most people don’t know about nuclear weapons is that they’re sort of, well, FRAGILE. They work by simultaneously detonating several pounds of chemical explosive in a perfect sphere around a radioactive core. It has to go off _absolutely perfectly,_ to the thousandth of a second, or it doesn’t trigger the fission reaction. And it takes a lot of delicate electronics to make that happen.

“You blow up a nuke before it detonates… shoot it with a missile, or whatever… it’ll definitely throw all that super-precise timing off. It’ll probably set off the conventional explosives in the bomb, leveling the building and scattering the nuclear fuel all over the place-- but that’s a whole lot better than a mushroom cloud.”

There was a long uncomfortable pause. “Well I know how well I’M sleeping tonight,” someone said cynically.

All Might, for his part, sat there rubbing his chin in thought. “Hm. A fair point, and well argued,” he said. “And a pro-tip I hope NONE of us ever has to use. Moving on; why did you and Midoriya, er, switch partners in the fight?”

Ochako and Izuku looked at one another briefly. “Well, sensei, both Bakugo and Yaoyorozu were prepared for me,” Izuku said. “And I was prepared for them. But when Ochako-san got the drop on Bakugo, I decided she was able to handle him-- but might not be as well prepared to handle Yaoyorozu.” He poked idly at a fading bullet bruise on his face. “Which in retrospect was definitely a wise decision.”

“My uniform is good against hostile environments, including fire and explosions,” Ochako added. “...Not so great against anti-tank rounds.” She gave Yaoyorozu a ‘good grief, woman’ look. Which was ignored. 

All Might ruminated. “Very well, I think it only fair to give you… half credit on your match,” he said. Both Izuku and Ochako sagged with relief. “But I’m going to ban your little trick as an acceptable solution from now on.”

“Now, Young Bakugo,” he said, turning to the last student. “I would like to know why you refused to listen to your partner and went off on your own. As badly as that turned out for you, I’d like to hear some sort of justification..,?”

Bakugo looked at him. “GeEz, MoM, taKe the fISsh for a WaLK yoUrSelf, caNT yOu See thE eMperOr wAnts to taLK to me? WhY yes, yOur EminENCE, I WoUlD liKe SoMe Yak bUttEr tEa… PleAsE hOlD thE yAk.”

All Might stared. “Ah, perhaps we’ll take this up AFTER your visit to Recovery Girl.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Wow, Izuku,” Ochaka said. “That’s a really great looking costume!”

It was the day of the USJ field trip. Aizawa had told them all they could wear their hero uniforms if they chose; naturally, everyone had chosen to do just that. But Izuku’s outfit had given them a bit of a surprise.

When he’d arrived, he’d still been in his “ordinary Izuku” form, untransformed… and wearing a new outfit. It was almost identical to his Marvel uniform, with the gold-trimmed white cape, gleaming metal boots and bracers, and a golden lightning bolt on his chest. The bodysuit, rather than brilliant red, was a vibrant green that matched his hair. It also wasn’t quite as form-fitting as the one he wore when he transformed-- much to Izuku’s relief.

“But I don’t get it,” Kaminari said. “Your power generates that cool costume when you change. Why do you need another?”

Izuku shrugged. “Because I still need to look like a Pro Hero even in ‘low power’ form. So I had the Support Class make me a second version of my uniform to wear. Here, look-- SHAZAM!” He transformed, and sure enough he was wearing the red-and-gold suit again. “SHAZAM!” --- and once again he was normal-sized and garbed in his green costume.

“To heck with that,” Mineta chipped in. “Why change shape at all? Just stay big and buffed up all the time and girls won’t be able to keep their hands off you!”

“Is everything about girls and sex with you?” Iida sighed at the class perv.

“No, sometimes I waste time on unimportant stuff too,” Mineta quipped with a smirk.

“He’s got a point though,” Jiro said reluctantly. “Why change at all?”

Izuku laughed a little and scratched the back of his head. “Several reasons, really. In this form I still have a little bit of power, maybe five percent of my bigger form. You know that saying ‘when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail?’ Well not every problem needs a twenty-pound sledgehammer, after all. Plus it’s going to be a lot easier to go to the store or ride the train or just walk around on my days off when I’m NOT a six foot tall wall of muscle.”

Several of his classmates made sounds of understanding. “Like back in the start of the Quirk era,” Ashido said. “Early heroes had to use secret identities to protect themselves and their families.”

“It’s not exactly a secret identity,” Izuku protested. “More like keeping your own identity… low profile? anonymous?”

“That’s the same thing--”

“Whatever you call it it makes sense,” Ochako said firmly. “We all might want to start thinking about having a ‘second look’ for when we want to go out in public as ordinary people rather than Pro Heroes.”

“You’ve got a long way to go before you have to worry about that,” Aizawa said, his voice dry as salt. “On the bus everyone. We don’t want to keep Thirteen waiting.”

*****

It had all gone wrong. Everything was wrong. How had everything all gone wrong?

Izuku pulled himself upright out of the street rubble. He’d plowed nearly fifty feet down the main path where the Noumu had thrown him. That monster was strong-- insanely strong!

He looked back to where the monster still stood. All Might was fighting the beast. But the monster had switched tactics from clumsy blows and punches to grappling, catching All Might off guard. All Might and the Noumu were now caught in a full-on wrestling clinch…

Except Izuku could see where the Noumu had sunk its fingers into All Might’s side. There was blood seeping out through All Might’s shirt.

All Might was _losing._

They had arrived at the USJ; they had all been so overawed at the massive hero-training complex. If anything they had been even more overawed at the Pro Hero who had designed and overseen its construction, Thirteen, the rescue hero. They had been waiting for the class at the front doors, and had been happily leading the whole group on a nickel tour of the facility.

Then the villains had arrived.

A midnight-black portal had been ripped open over the center of the Plaza, and dozens of villains of every size and shape had poured out. The first three had been the most terrifying: their leader, a man clothed horrifically in a suit made of severed human hands. His underling, a man-shaped cloud of indigo in a business suit. And a horrible, enormous brute with jet-black skin, a brain exposed to the air through the top of its skull, and a grinning metallic beak full of tombstone-sized teeth.

Aizawa had ordered them to run; they had tried, but the portal-cloud villain had intercepted them, dropping the entire class through his portals and scattering them all across the facility in groups of two or three. Still more villains had been waiting for them, and the raw students had found themselves fighting for their lives.

But the villains had not been prepared-- not for Kirishima and Bakugou’s ferocity, Yaoyoruzo or Asui’s cunning and versatility, Todoroki’s cold ruthless skill…and they certainly weren’t prepared for a skinny, green-haired kid who could shoot electricity from his fingertips, move like lightning, hit like a runaway truck, and _fly._

With Izuku’s airborne help the students managed to regroup. They could perhaps be forgiven for the foolishness of youth, but rather than escape they had rushed back to the Plaza to try and rescue their teacher from the villains. If the villains hadn’t been prepared for the students, then they were even more unprepared for the students to counterattack-- or for a gigantic lightning bolt to make one of those students transform into a muscular, red-clad titan fit to rival All Might. Most had taken one look at the Mighty Marvel, dropped everything and ran for their lives. Not that they'd gotten far...

And the leader of the villains had turned the Noumu on him.

The Noumu had knocked the students around like ninepins. Izuku had charged the monster, hammering it with blows that would have leveled buildings. The Noumu had simply stood there soaking up the punishment, leering like a mad animal-- and then backhanded Izuku down the street.

Then All Might had arrived… and the leader of the League of Villains had dropped everything to turn the Noumu on him.

And now All Might was caught in a grapple with the Noumu, the Noumu was digging its thick fingers into All Might’s bleeding side, and _All Might was losing._

“No!” Izuku exploded out of the rubble and rocketed toward the Noumu’s exposed back. He hit with all the speed of Mercury and strength of Hercules he could muster. He might as well have been his old Quirkless self slamming into a brick wall. The Noumu didn’t go flying; it didn’t even rock on its heels from the violent impact. It just stood there slowly crushing the life out of All Might.

Izuku leapt on the Noumu’s back and got the monster’s head in a two-armed grip. “Let... him… GO!” he yelled in the monster’s ear. He didn’t dare use a lightning blast; it would hit All Might too. He grabbed hold of the monster’s head and began twisting.

The hand-covered villain was merely standing and watching, cackling with glee. “Fight, fight all you want,” he was shrieking. “Go ahead, partner with the Symbol of Peace, join his party-- My Noumu is more than a match for both of you. He was built to kill All Might, he’s more than enough to kill you, too!”

“Midoriya! Get… ungh.. out.. of.. here!” All Might grunted. He hammered the Noumu’s gut with a half dozen punches, to no effect.

“Not… without… YOU!” Izuku said. He grabbed hold of the monster’s bolted-on metallic beak, trying to get leverage, and wrenched for all he was worth. There was a screeching noise; not like the howl of the monster but the scream of tortured metal. The metallic beak twisted and bent. One by one the rivets holding it to flesh and bone gave way till, with a horrible, wet ripping sound the entire metal frame tore away from the Noumu’s skull.

The monster reared up with an animal scream of pain, blood spraying everywhere. Izuku fell off its back, flipping over and landing face down on the ground. The twisted piece of metal still in his hands. It was more than a mere piece of metal that had been hammered to its mouth. There were wires and leads tipped with electrodes that had run _inside and through_ the monster’s head-- he could see bits of pink brain matter still stuck to some of them---

Revolted, his stomach heaving, he threw the mangled brace away. He sat up and looked at the creature and his stomach heaved even more; the monster was wailing in agony and clutching at the blood-gushing ruin that had been its face. Everyone-- the UA students, the few standing villains, even All Might himself-- was standing and staring in shock as the wailing, moaning monster staggered off and fell to the ground, wailing and moaning in anguish. More than one person was noisily sick.

Shigaraki made a horrid noise of his own. “You broke my Noumu,” he rasped. “YOU BROKE MY NOUMU!” He flung himself in Izuku’s direction, his corrosive hands outstretched.

Before he could close half the distance a sparkling energy beam, a blast of ice, a massive jolt of electricity and a truly impressive explosion intercepted him. He went flying off into the bushes, tumbling three or four times before rolling to a halt, smoking slightly. The UA students had had ENOUGH of _him._

Kurogiri might had interceded on behalf of his ostensible boss, but Kirishima had throat-punched him earlier, and Sato had grabbed him by the armored gorget and banged him on the ground like an angry gorilla testing a new suitcase. It was a bad time to be a member of the League of Villains.

All Might stood over the moaning, sobbing Noumu, looking grim. “This is the less pleasant part of heroing work,” he said soberly. “I’d best put this monster under before it recuperates and lashes out again.” He laced his fingers together and raised his arms over his head, ready to bring them down in a hammer blow.

Izuku cringed in pity as he watched. As terrifying as the Noumu had been, as necessary as its brute power made it, bludgeoning it into unconsciousness seemed excessive now. Especially with it lying there, curled up, moaning and…

_Moaning and sobbing…_

“WAIT!” Izuku had never moved so fast before, even with the power of Shazam running through him. All Might actually blinked and jumped back as a red-clad, olympian figure suddenly interposed itself between himself and the Noumu between one blink and the next.

“Young Midoriya, stand aside, I have to put this monster out of commission--” All Might said urgently.

Of all the powers Izuku had been infused with, the Wisdom of Solomon was the most difficult to get a grip on. It usually lurked in the background and poked and nudged, providing subtle insights, startling brief bursts of wisdom, enhancing his already-sharp inductive and deductive skills. At this moment though it was practically shouting in Izuku’s ear. He thought quickly of an explanation All Might would listen to. “Sir, wait, please! My… _my powers are telling me something..._ ”

It worked. All Might lowered his hands.

Izuku found himself standing protectively over the Noumu. “Sir, the villains outright told us. The Noumu was made to destroy you. Like some sort of Frankenstein experiment. _”_ He turned around to face it. “Humans, and very very rare animals, have Quirks. But they only have one Quirk each. The Noumu has several-- super strength, shock absorption, super healing. There’s only one way I can think of that they could get so many Quirks into one body.

“’Frankenstein experiment’ was the right choice of words. They made the Noumu… but what did they make him _of?"_

“ _Or more accurately-- who did they make him of?”_

The pieces clicked together. “Oh my G...” someone said.

Izuku did something next that had every student’s heart racing in fear. He knelt down by the monster and put a gentle hand on the creature’s arm. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said gently. “I won’t hurt you. Let me see...”

The Noumu was lying on its side, its arms clutched over its face, making garbled sobbing noises. Slowly under Izuku’s touch it lowered its arms from its head. The other students, inspired by Izuku’s calm, slowly closed in a circle-- well out of arm’s reach, mind. They were brave, but they were also careful.

The wounds healed as they watched. The exposed brain was slowly being covered over by a cap of flesh and thick bone. Astonishingly the creature’s ruin of a face was already half-knitted together. The bloody wounds were fading, a loose, rubbery mouth like a floppy sock puppet’s had re-formed around the tombstone teeth. It was mumbling around the thumb in its mouth, and tears were streaking its bloody face.

“That used to be a person?” Kaminari said, horrified.

“It used to be _several_ people,” Izuku said, certain as he could be. “But I think most of it used to be a _child.”_

“oh my---,” Ochako said, clapping her hands to her mouth and looking sick.

“It makes a sick sort of sense,” Todoroki said grimly, his fists clenched. “If you want to build a monster, it would be so much easier to start with a child. So you could sculpt them into the shape you wanted as they grew.” Frost crept up one arm, and flames flickered on the other. The expression on his face was as cool and blank as always but there was something frightening in his eyes.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Izuku kept saying to the Noumu. “That’s better, isn’t it? Can you understand me? Do you have a name?”

The Noumu looked up at him with watery, bulging eyes (they had reset themselves into sockets under thick beetling brows). “T-Touma,” it said. Its voice was oddly warped, like a small child’s spoken through a distorter set to deepest baritones. “No.. no muh hurd. No muh, no muh….”

“No more hurt,” Izuku promised. His teeth ground hard enough to strike sparks. _Noumu,_ he thought. “ _No more.” They made his name from the screams he made begging them to stop. Sick evil bastards--_

Momo turned on her heel and was marching to where the leader of the League of Villains lay. She was clutching a baseball bat she’d just manifested in her hands and had murder in her eye. Shoji stopped her… with some difficulty. “Yaoyoruzo, what are you intending?” he said in a stern tone, keeping a tight grip on her arm.

“I’m just going to administer some first aid to the villains,” she said between clenched teeth.

“With a baseball bat?”

“ _Very enthusiastic_ first aid,” she snarled.

Kirishima blocked her path as well. “Come on, Momo, take a deep breath,” he said. “You’re gonna be a Pro Hero, you don’t wanna go that route--” he said.

“Thank you, Kirishima,” All Might said.

“--Not unless you’re going to share with the whole class,” Kirishima continued. “Think you can whip up an extra bat or two? Maybe a tire iron?”

“Not funny, children,” All Might said.

“Who’s laughing?”

Several students suddenly shouted in alarm. Kurogiri’s unconscious form had vanished. Without warning black portals formed all over the USJ under unconscious and bound villains, who promptly sank out of sight. “BLAST!” All Might shouted as Shigaraki vanished as well.

Another portal formed underneath the Noumu. “Nuuh!” the creature moaned in terror, clutching at the ground as the lower half of its body fell into the black hole. “Nuuh, baad place! Nuuh!”

Then Ochako did the bravest thing in her life up to that point. The gravity girl flung herself forward, throwing her arms around the Noumu’s massive wrist. “Quick, grab him!” she cried out. “Don’t let them take him away!”

Izuku flung himself on the Noumu’s other arm, grabbing hold and digging his heels in. “Hang on, Touma, we got you! Quick, use your Zero Gravity!” he said, his arms rippling as he strained.

“I am, something’s pulling him in--!”

Black tendrils rose up out of the portal, latching onto the Noumu who cried out in terror. It was painfully obvious that Touma was intimately familiar with the black portal and the tendrils, and that they boded no good.

Rapidly the other students piled on. Tape clung to him, purple hairballs tacked to him and stuck him to the pavement. Even Bakugo jumped in, cursing and swearing and firing off blast after blast into the portal. Then All Might leapt into the fray, grabbing the Noumu by the waist, and the tug-of-war was over. Slowly, then with increasing speed they pulled Touma out of the swirling portal. It snapped shut, defeated, just as his toes cleared the edge. Everyone went sprawling.

“We did it!” Sero and Ashido cheered.

“Yeah,” Mineta said. “Holy crap, what WAS that?” It was a good question. Anything that could hold its own against the united strength of Marvel AND All Might was a frightening foe to imagine.

There was a commotion from the entrance. The doors burst open and in came the entire teaching staff of UA, led by Tenya Iida. “Help has arrived!” he shouted. “We--

He stopped, gawking at the sight of class 1A sprawled in a pile around the Noumu.

“What the heck happened here?” he said.

*****

Inspector Tsukauchi looked over the remains of the Noumu faceplate. “Gruesome bit of work, that,” he said.

All Might nodded. “It seems that it was some sort of control harness."

“I looked it over,” Power Loader said. “It’s ingenious in a ghastly sort of way. The Noumu’s healing factor would have created a problem for those trying to control it. Even if it had been chemically and surgically lobotomized, it would have slowly healed, regained its intellect and independent thought. The face harness used a combination of electrostimulation and nerve pressure to block memory and arrest the healing factor-- keep the brain from healing and the skull open.”

“I get interrupting the brain healing, but keeping it exposed?” Tsukauchi said, incredulous.

“To make it easier to make modifications and ‘improvements’ later,” Power Loader said grimly. “It’s got to be a pain to saw through a speed-healing, super-tough skull.”

“Ah. Like you said. Ingenious in a ghastly sort of way.” Tsukauchi shook his head. “I’m looking forward to finding these sick twisted freaks and burying them in the deepest hole we can find.”

“What will you be doing with Touma?” The trio turned; Izuku was standing there just within hearing range, still in his Mighty Marvel form.

“Oh, you mean the Noumu?” The detective said, pushing the brim of his hat up. “Well we--”

“His name,” Izuku interrupted. “Is Touma.” Tsukauchi was taken aback; the boy’s voice had been respectful, but there was a hardness in his wide expressive eyes Tsukauchi hadn’t expected.

Tskukauchi sighed. “Apologies. We currently plan to move him into facilities in Tartarus prison--- I know, I know,” he said at the boy’s expression, “but it’s the only place we have that has the facilities to cope with someone of his… impressive power levels.”

“It only makes sense, young hero,” All Might said soberly. “He is a six year old child in the body of a juggernaut. I shudder to imagine the damage he could do anywhere else, even in complete innocence.” The red-clad young titan flinched, but nodded glumly in acceptance.

“I promise you, we will do everything to make him as comfortable as possible,” the detective said. “Some of us have children of our own, you know.” Suitably chastened, Izuku nodded again. “We’ll be conducting an investigation to try and determine who his parents are… or were… with what little he can tell us at this point, I won’t hold out much hope.”

“No telling how long he was in the League of Villain’s clutches,” Power Loader said.

“Beyond that, it will be day by day. One step at a time.”

“I… thank you sirs. I’ll pass the word on to the other students. It will ease everyone’s minds at least a little.” Izuku bowed briefly, then turned and walked off to join the others.

All Might watched as the young hero moved among the others, passing on what he’d been told. “An extraordinary boy,” he said. “Even disregarding his power.”

“And that’s the truth,” the detective said. The ambulances bearing Thirteen and Eraserhead had already departed. They watched for a moment as the Noumu--- as Touma-- was loaded aboard a heavy-duty police vehicle built for hauling villains with powerful brute Quirks. The former monster climbed meekly aboard, his wrists and ankles chained together with enormous anti-Quirk manacles. His large googly eyes were wide and afraid.

Izuku darted back over to them. “Sir,” he said to All Might. “With your permission, I’d like to ride with Touma to the facility,” he said breathlessly, bowing again. “He knows me, and it will keep him calm...”

All Might hesitated, then nodded. “Very well.”

“Are you sure?” Tsukauchi said, surprised.

“He’s been completely docile since we… liberated him,” All Might said. “And as young Midoriya said, he seems to have bonded with him, and it will keep him calm. And if things get troublesome, Izuku is powerful enough to keep things in hand.” _And better a nigh-indestructible titan to ride with him than some poor hapless SWAT officer,_ he thought. Izuku bowed a third time and ran off again.

Tsukauchi pulled out his police radio and called the addition of escort in. All Might watched the boy leave. He trotted over to Yaoyoruzo and spoke with her for several seconds. A moment later he was boarding the police wagon with an enormous teddy bear in hand, which he tucked into the delighted Noumu’s arms.

_You will be a great Pro Hero someday, young Midoriya,_ All Might thought. _But more than your great power or your brilliant mind, it will be your noble heart that makes you so._

_*****_

_Okay, it's a short chapter but I've gotten tired of rewriting the USJ battle over and over again. Kids go to USJ, villains show up, Kids beat them like a drum, THEN things get interesting. I decided to be a bit briefer this time._

_Oh, and Touma? In case you're wondering his face sort of looks like Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. .... with big square teeth and brow ridges._


End file.
